Liquid concentrates are often used in the industrial laundry industry. In general, laundry requiring cleaning is picked up, transported to a laundry cleaning facility, cleaned, and then delivered. Stains often encountered include motor oil stains and carbon black. Machines that are often used by the industrial laundry industry include 400 lb. to 600 lb. washer/extractor front-loading machines. The detergents used by the industrial laundry industry often include alkalinity and/or surfactants to help break up the stains on the laundry. In addition, the industrial laundry industry often uses conditioners that may contain phosphates.
Another commercial laundry industry that may utilize liquid concentrates can be referred to as on premise laundry (OPL). On premise laundry facilities are generally equipped to handle stains that are lighter and/or more consistent than those found on laundry cleaned in industrial laundry facilities. On premise laundry facilities are generally found in the hospitality and health care industries and are often used to clean towels, personal garments, and sheets. The types of machines used by on premise laundry facilities can include washer/extractor front-loading machines.
Textiles in the commercial laundry industry are generally cleaned by introducing a concentrate (surfactant, alkalinity, and conditioning agent) into a wash basin of a washing machine or by diluting a detergent concentrate with water via a dispenser and adding the diluted concentrate to the wash basin. The concentrate mixes with water added to the washing basin and forms a liquid use solution that contacts soiled textiles provided in the washing basin and dissolves stains present on the textiles. After the wash step (break step), the use solution is typically drained, and the textiles are rinsed. If desired, the textiles can be bleached. Another technique for washing textiles involves a suds step or a carry-over step prior to rinsing. After the washing step, the use solution is allowed to drain from the washing basin. A suds step typically involves adding additional detergent to the wash basin of the automatic washing machine after use solution drains following the wash step, and washing again. A carry-over step generally involves washing the textiles with the chemicals that remains with the textiles after the step of draining, without adding additional chemicals.
Structured liquid compositions have been developed for use in the liquid detergent industry in order to increase the loading of generally non-soluble components in the liquid composition. The term “structured surfactant” has been used to refer to pourable, fluid, non-Newtonian compositions which have the capacity physically to suspend solid particles by virtue of the presence of a surfactant mesophase or solid phase, which may be interspersed with a solvent phase. The surfactant phase can be represented as packed spherulites dispersed in the aqueous phase. Alternatively, a thin mobile lamellar phase or a bi-continuous reticular interspersion of aqueous and lamellar phases may be present. Structured liquid compositions are disclosed by, for example, European Publication No. 623,670; European Publication No. 38,101; European Publication No. 160,342; European Publication No. 104,452; U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,195; U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,223; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,840.